The Latest: Sentencing postponed in case over Texas attack

PHOENIX (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing hearing of an Arizona man convicted of helping plot a 2015 attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

Sentencing has been postponed for an American-born Muslim convert convicted of supporting the Islamic State group and helping to plot a 2015 attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.

Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem underwent an hourlong sentencing hearing Tuesday, but U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton held off on imposing punishment and instead ordered attorneys to hand in legal briefs in preparation for a new sentencing hearing on Feb. 8.

Bolton wants lawyers to chime in about whether a numerical calculation in imposing sentences should be upped because the offenses involved terrorism.

Kareem was convicted of providing guns used at the event in suburban Dallas and hosting two friends who were Islamic State followers to discuss the upcoming attack.

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1 p.m.

An Arizona man is scheduled to be convicted of supporting the Islamic State group and helping to plot a 2015 attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.

Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem at his sentencing Tuesday.

His lawyer has asked for less than six years prison time.

Kareem was accused of providing guns used at the event in suburban Dallas in 2015 and hosting two friends who were Islamic State followers to discuss the upcoming attack.

The friends died in a police shootout and a security guard was wounded outside the Texas contest. No one else was injured

Kareem testified he did not know about the attack until after it happened. He was convicted in March 2016.